At coins shows, I typicall see ancients selling for around 20 bucks at their cheapest. However, on ebay, I'm seeing them sell for often less than 5 bucks, even coins dates at 30 AD or earlier. And sometimes as low at 99 cents. Are these ebay coins legit?? They seem so cheap.
And I would say Randy that those are better than many on Ebay. Ebay when it started used to have true unclean coins from the ground, and people would buy and clean. As time went on more of these "uncleaned" were cleaned just junk. Now its mainly just junk. A dealer will not want to sell these kinds of coins, especially since it will make most collectors think all of his coins are garbage. I would not feel bad about buying Randy's coins, but maybe 80% of ancient coins on Ebay I would not take if you handed them to me. Most on Ebay are real, but ancient collectors just do not want them.
I have purchased reasonably nice coins online and at shows for $5-10 but it is not a regular thing. Many sellers start lots at 99 cents in the hope that people will get into bidding wars and the coin will reach a higher number. Starting a $20 coin at $20 runs the risk of no one bidding just not wanting to be first while seeing ten people have driven a coin from $1 to $20 can make people think they will bid just once more. Sometimes no one cares and a coin goes for a cheap price even though it looks like it should have gone higher. This sometimes depends on how a seller listed the coin or if the seller has a very low feedback from being new and not trusted by a group of regular customers. I have seen sellers trying to make a buck off the postage listing a cheap coin with over $5 postage which brought under $5 while the same coin listed for $10 with $3 postage might have sold as well. Buyers spend their money where they wish and as they wish. There is not necessarily a common sense answer to it all. I generally do better at shows simply because there is no postage and dealers spent less time and effort describing, photographing and paying eBay fees. Ancients collectors are very much a condition sensitive group. Perfect coins may go for 1000 times the price of slugs of the same type. Just being 2000 year old does not make a coin desirable.
I've never bought an Ancient at coin show. The ones I saw started at 200. I got a nice Diecletus Coin from ebay for around 75. Made the mistake of taking it to school (economics debate). Haven't found it ever since. Blows my mind.
There is a Baltimore show at the convention center this weekend. I'll be there Saturday expecting to see coins from $5 to $5000. Below is what I found last year with no coin over $30 (coin E). Certainly this year may be more and there will be plenty of dealers that start at $200 or more. you just have to walk on by and shop another table until you find the one that fits. http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/coinshow2011captions.html
I thought this was relevant to add. Also, the line between what adds ,and subtracts value on ancients gets blurred, depending on the seller.
I was going to get a couple ancients at my local show but the dealer I have grown accustomed to did not show up to sell me one. I don't know where he deals either. Guess I gotta wait a year
